Mainstream Graphics Cards (0xAA/0xAF)

The following medium quality tests were conducted with depth of field enabled, texture quality low, shadow quality low and shader effects set to low.

Although the GeForce GTX 260 smashed the Radeon HD 4870 continuously in the high quality tests, our first batch of medium quality results is surprisingly close. Here the GeForce GTX 260 is 10fps faster and while that's still a comfortable margin for the GeForce, it's nothing compared to what we were looking at earlier.

This put the Radeon HD 4870 on par with the GeForce GTS 250. The GeForce 9800 GT was faster than the Radeon HD 4770, which was faster than the Radeon HD 4850. Meanwhile the Radeon HD 4830 was just able to defeat the GeForce 9600 GT.

At 1920x1200 the GeForce GTX 260 extended its lead over the Radeon HD 4870 substantially. The Radeon HD 4870 once again delivered similar performance to that of the GeForce GTS 250, while the 9800 GT edged out the HD 4770.

The standings remained much the same at 2560x1600, though here Nvidia cards appear to have an even greater advantage, as the GeForce GTS 250 pulled further away from the Radeon HD 4870, for example.